While it will likely be the largest single project investment a carrier ever pursues, the historical track record of implementing new policy administration systems shows that most projects are “challenged” with only a small percentage optimizing their outcome. The goal of a policy administration program is not merely to implement another legacy application, but to deliver transformative capabilities to the business.

Only 30% of policy administration projects meet the traditional definition of success in terms of time, budget, and scope delivered. And of that 30%, we observe that less than one in three realize the full business benefits. Those carriers who do “optimize” and achieve this rare level of success will be able to leapfrog their competition who may be in the approximately 70% of projects that are challenged or fail outright.

In terms of strategic investment, we are seeing an unprecedented level of investment by small to mid-sized carriers whose successful policy administration implementations will provide them the ability to leapfrog larger, better funded competitors through improved product flexibility, speed to market, and lower IT costs. The legacy development processes that worked in the past are not sustainable. Leading carriers are moving beyond the status quo and applying a faster, more flexible approach to policy administration implementation.